Western ‘Eastern wisdom’ and the concept of new religions: remapping the field

Rok, strany: 2012, 513 - 538

Terms ‘new religions’ or ‘new religious movements’ refer actually to 1950s and 1960s as the time of the origin of particular religious groups/movements. Yet to set pu a date is something else that to clarify why the date is important. The debate concerning NRMs is, however, either surprisingly silent on this issue or inconsisent in subsuming particular cases under this heading. Sociologists and scholars of religion seem to do, in this field, little more than balancing the anti-cultist discourse with minor terminological differences creating an impression of value neutrality. In the following article I will examine the concept of ‘new religions’ on the background of an introduction of communication through the printed media. Using data from my research on acculturation of Hinduism in Czech occultism during the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, I will point out that this factor played a significant role in modernization of religions in general - ‘new’ as well as ‘old’ - and that after contrasting new religiosity with traditional religiosity while dwelling on a more conservative understanding of the ‘traditional’, the difference between ‘new’ and ‘old’ religions will largely vanish while new possibilities of understanding more important distinctions in the field of religion in modern societies might emerge.

ISO 690:

Fujda, M. 2012. Western ‘Eastern wisdom’ and the concept of new religions: remapping the field. In Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, vol. 60, no.5, pp. 513-538. 1339-9357.

APA:

Fujda, M. (2012). Western ‘Eastern wisdom’ and the concept of new religions: remapping the field. Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, 60(5), 513-538. 1339-9357.